Embassy of Kenya — Local services in Washington

Hello Five stars to Joy

I have an opportunity to pen down my own view and feeling about our Embassy of Kenya in USA. I applied for a renewal of the passport. Everything went well until the time of return from Embassy of Kenya, Consulate in New York. I received the mail that my new passport is in the Consulate of New York and followed all the instructions. Unfortunately, it took too long to respond. My trip was just around the corner and started growing impatient. I called a couple of times and was directed to some extensions with filled up voice messaging. I accidentally by passed the instructions pressed "0" and eventually spoke with a life person. I spoke to a staff member (female) in the morning and told me she will call back. Honestly, she did not call back, and I even was left wandering how she was going to call back because she did not take my cell phone number or tell me about her name for me to call her back. I waited, day one passed.

Day two, I called and dialed "0" and someone picked up the phone that sounded like the same lady I had spoken to still in the morning hours. I assumed and started my story a fresh, I told her about the return of my passport, and she said I will call you back. Fortunately, before she hung up the phone, I asked her to please tell me her name, but she refused. I immediately, lost my cool and started telling her how she was being unprofessional. She had no etiquette. She hung up the phone, I immediately called the Embassy of Kenya in Washington and spoke with a staff member (Female) by name Joy. I explained the whole issue about the passport renewal and how it has not been released from the Consulate in New York. She was very professional, calmed me down and promised to follow up the matter and I don't have to call again, just expect the passport to be sent to me.

After 2-3 days, I tried to track the passport, still there was no action. I called now again to the consulate of New York and still a staff member (female) received the call, but this time hung it up. I then called Kenya Embassy in Washington. Has I always said, destiny is destiny, I again met Joy on the line. She now identified me by name, and asked, " you again calling for the same issue?" I said, " Yes mum". She promised me to stay online and tracked my passport by calling Consulate of New York and made staff there follow the issue and my passport was put on mail via UPS and tracking number showed item on the way and received it was at my door in Minnesota in no minute. I am so proud of Joy, she is there for us, a devoted and courageous servant for Kenya families in the diaspora. Joy, I am here standing tall and proud and courageously saying keep doing what you are doing, your destiny has bright colors.

Thanks Elijah...

DO NOT TRUST THIS EMBASSY. If I could a negative star I would. My Evisa process was a nightmare. Disregard the promised 48 hrs- it will be at least 2 weeks or longer. As noted below it took a tortuous 18 days from the application:

1 The payment process is a scam. The credit card never works and their only solution is 'try a different computer or browser' which of course doesn't work. There is an option to pay via KCB or Equity bank (in person) but that implies you are already in Kenya or have a contact in Kenya. After cc payment failed ( no help from customer service), I paid via KCB and even with a documented, valid transacton receipt the Evisa site repeatedly stated 'bill not paid'. 2 days before travel, after multiple attempts to reach and eventual useless interractions with customer service, the system led me to a scammer. This person presented himself as an immigration employee/customer service representative and advised me to pay again via his Mpesa account as my original payment was 'hung up' in the system (we disconnected when we realized what was going on). FYI, KCB confirmed the payment was sent to immigration the very SAME DAY I paid. Missed flight- there is a ridiculous requirement that your visa be printed even though it has a bar code that can be scanned. The whole process is digital. My visa arrived digitally on the day of travel after calling an embassy official frantically from the airport . Unfortunately, there are no printers at the airport and per Kenya Immigration services, airlines cannot check you in without a PRINTED copy of an ELECTRONIC VISA (what an oxymoron!). Because we had to dash to the nearest Fedex printer with less than an hour to spare, we missed our flight! RECOMMENDATIONS: GET A PAYMENT SYSTEM THAT WORKS!! FIX YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND GET RID OF THE SCAMMERS! FOR TRAVELERS: BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!! OR DON'T...

Apparently Kenya Is Not Interested In Tourist Dollars.

In 2021, after multiple forced log outs, continuous error messages from the website, as well as navigating a web page with nonsensical questions such as "Current county of residence if different than above-indicated where you were born" (mine was not different, I was born in the USA and reside in the USA, but a reply about a DIFFERENT country was required before being allowed to proceed???) as well as being asked where I am staying (with a friend, as I selected that on the drop-down menu) but then being forced to provide a hotel reservation before proceeding to the next page???? ......I was finally able to submit my Visa application using clever workarounds to these erroneous stumbling blocks.

I have called the Kenya embassy in the USA since the end of October 2021 to check my status. They either did not answer the phone, ask you to leave a message in a full voicemail box, or quite literally (I am not kidding) pick up the phone and then hang it up. One can actually hear them do that. I have emailed them multiple times. Not only has there been no response, my emails are not even opened (I have Mail Track). Please read the other Google reviews on the Embassy, they support my experience. The only response I have received is an auto-generated form. letter.

My flight to Kenya was set to depart in 10 days and I wasn't able to get ahold of anyone to inquire as to the status of my application. I have received ZERO CONFIRMATION other than a receipt of my payment. Why market yourself as a tourist destination if you make it IMPOSSIBLE, or at least super stressful to come to...